100 years ago
April 25, 1919
FORT SMITH -- Fire of unknown origin tonight destroyed the plants of the Industrial Laboratories Company, the C.A. Bryant school furniture establishment, the Knowles Storage Company, and the Johnson & Hunt grocer jobbing house, also doing damage to adjoining buildings. The aggregate loss is estimated at $150,000. The fire was not brought under control until nearly midnight. While the big fire was in progress, an alarm was turned on from the residence section, where a two-story frame store building and an adjoining two-story frame residence were burning. The loss here was estimated at about $20,000. The store, occupied by a grocery, was owned by Mr. Hunt.
50 years ago
April 25, 1969
BALD KNOB -- Richard Thomas Schmidt, 32, of Bald Knob, was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday ... on a charge of participating in the $34,000 robbery of the Helena National Bank on January 3. He was described as being the driver of the getaway car. Schmidt had pleaded guilty March 24 and was returned Thursday for sentencing. ... Everett Hardy Wyatt, 26, of Searcy was indicted February 11 on a charge of committing the robbery. He is still at large. The bank was robbed of $34,000 by a man who convinced the bank officials that he was holding Mrs. John Moye, the wife of a bank vice president. After the man left, it was learned that his threat was a hoax. Schmidt was arrested by the FBI January 16 at his trailer home on U.S. Highway 67 north of Bald Knob.
25 years ago
April 25, 1994
• John H. Smith, 52, of North Little Rock used a pocket knife to cut a would-be robber across the chest at Fifth and Poplar streets at 1:10 a.m. Sunday, North Little Rock police said. Smith's assailant stabbed him in the right leg, which required first aid at Baptist Memorial Medical Center in North Little Rock. The would-be robber hasn't been identified. Smith told officers he was walking when two men challenged him on the sidewalk and threatened to harm him if he didn't give them his money. Smith said he took a swing at one of the men with a pocket knife, but the man ducked under the knife and stabbed him. Then Smith connected with the attacker's chest on another swing of his knife.
10 years ago
April 25, 2009
• The Little Rock Police Department levied its most severe punishment, save firing, against an undercover detective who asked repeatedly that Bryant police ignore a driving-while-intoxicated charge as a "professional courtesy," according to documents released Friday. Chief Stuart Thomas suspended detective Russell C. Littleton, an 11-year veteran assigned to a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives task force, for 30 days that ended in January. ... In August 2008, a Bryant police detective stopped Littleton just off Interstate 30 exit 123 a little before 11 p.m .... According to Bryant police reports, detective Nick Ramsey was working a drunken-driving detail on Interstate 30 when he stopped Littleton, who reportedly was driving 89 mph when the speed limit was 70. Ramsey wrote in his report and told Little Rock police internal-affairs investigators that when he walked up to Littleton's window, Littleton had his badge and police-department identification clearly visible in his open wallet. ... Right about then, Ramsey wrote, he smelled alcohol. ... Ramsey's report says Littleton failed the first field-sobriety test, failed the second and passed the third.
Metro on 04/25/2019